According to a report by The Associated Press, LG's display arm has admitted to six of its employees being involved in the possible misappropriation of OLED technology secrets from Samsung. Samsung has accused the display maker of having "systematically stole its display technology and poached Samsung employees."
In addition to six LG employees and LG Display itself, Samsung had also charged a total of 11 people in South Korea for stealing its AMOLED technology back in 2011. Three of those charged were its own employees. Both Samsung and LG are South Korean-based companies and together are the world's most prolific display makers.
Although LG admits its employees may have crossed the line, LG denies Samsung's accusations. The company has already moved to defend itself by claiming Samsung's "secrets" can't be considered trade secrets at all. Instead, LG says they are common knowledge to the industry. LG has also said it has plans to file for defamation against its rival.
Interestingly, LG is poised to be the first out of the gate with a 55-inch OLED TV prepped for possible launch sometime this fall. Samsung's 55-inch OLED offering is expected to arrive some time this year too, but possibly later.
OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology is superior to traditional LCD tech in a number of ways. OLED screens don't require a backlight because each pixel is its own light source. As a result, such displays can be super thin, provide better contrast, deeper blacks, better viewing angles and do it all with (potentially) less power.
OLED also provides far faster response times, effectively eliminating latency, making "ghosting" a relic of the past. Where large LCD panels typically have response times higher than 20 milliseconds, similarly-sized OLED panels can attain latencies less than .01 millisecond.